Online Guide to Writing and Research

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

The Research Stage

In this stage, you should emphasize the nature and scope of your research, ensuring that you have kept orderly and complete notes, performed an adequate survey of the research, and have your supporting ideas ready to develop into your first draft. In the research stage, you should be able to answer in detail the following questions:

Checklist for the The Research Stage

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How [well] does my research question describe the scope and slant of my topic?

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How extensive is my initial survey of possible resources for my topic?

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Are my research notes methodical, complete, and orderly? Are they clear about what is quoted, paraphrased, and summarized from my research?

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What other idea-generating techniques did I use—brainstorming, keeping a journal or research log, freewriting?

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Are my bibliography notes complete with all citations and bibliographical data on every source, and are they representative of the survey of my topic?